Decrepit///Ben Parish

Chapter 4

I am awoken by a loud knock on the wooden door of my room in the convalescent wing.
Not even half a second after I hear the knock, the door opens. I sit up quickly. A tall, buff man walks in. He looks about 40, and he holds himself like most soldiers do. His spine is very straight. I realize that he is the man that was calling out the numbers when I got here.
He just stands and looks at me, like he's waiting for me to do something.
"Hi." I say.
"Do you know who I am?" he says.
"No sir."
"I'm Colonel Alexander Vosch, Commander of the base." I don't really know how I'm supposed to react to his introduction, so I stay seated in my bed.
"Do you know why you're here, Scarlett?"
"To get revenge?" I say as more of a question than a statement.
"Yes, that's true, but it's also to fight the Others. You children are the future." What does he mean by that?
There were no adults on the bus, why did they only take the kids?
"What do you mean we're the future?"
"You kids are going to fight the Others. You will be assigned to a squad and trained by our senior drill instruction, Sergeant Reznik."
"Oh, I think I met him when I arrived yesterday."
"Yes. I saw your Wonderland profile. You've had an interesting past. I think you'll make a fantastic addition to one of the squads. Do you think you can do this?" He reaches out and touches my necklace, "For them?"
"Yes sir!"
"Good. Reznik will be here to take you to the squad you've been assigned to at 0500." He walks out of the room.
It's that early? I barely even got to sleep. I lay back down and close my eyes, hoping to get few more minutes of sleep.
I wake up to Reznik shaking me, hard. I'm not sure how long I was asleep, it was probably only a few minutes.
"Here put on the jumpsuit and boots, and make it quick. I'll be outside waiting." He hands me a small stack of things. There is a pair of black, shiny combat boots sitting on top, a thin blue jumpsuit, undergarments, a long-sleeved black t-shirt, and cargo pants.
"Effing hurry up! We don't have all day!" I quickly throw on the undergarments and jumpsuit and lace up my boots.
I open the door and Reznik is standing about three feet away from the door, directly in front of it, with a scowl on his face.
"Oh, my shit you took like three hours just to put on a damn jumpsuit!" He yells making the vein in his neck pop out. He pulls something out of one of his many pockets.
"Private Enigma, wear this all the time she we can identify you." He hands me a necklace with a shiny dog tag on hanging from it, the number 485 engraved in it. It's the tag that was handed to me when I got off the bus. Wait, Enigma?
"Who's Enigma?" I ask.
"You. You dumbass. I give all my new privates nicknames to go by. Forget about the old you and your old name, you're Private Enigma now."
"Yes sir."
"Now we've got a squad for you to meet."
~~
Reznik says we're going to Barracks 10. I hope I'm not expected to remember the way to these barracks, there's no way in hell I'll be able to. He told me that once he left, to ask for private Zombie.
We get to a set of gray double doors with the number 10 in spray painted on them. Reznik opens one of them and we walk inside.
Inside is complete chaos.
There are kids ranging in ages. There is a younger looking boy running out of the bathroom in only a towel, a plump boy is frantically trying to make his bead, and another boy is lacing up his boots, to name a few.
Even though they're all rushing around, they all have the same topic of conversation.
Me.
"What do you think the new guy is going to be like?" The boy that only had a towel on a minute ago with big ears said that.
"Yeah Zombie, have you heard anything about him?" A guy with a slight country accents asks.
"The only thing I know is his name. They call him Enigma." A boy answers.
Reznik walks forward, making our presence known. "He, is a she." All their heads snap towards us. Once they lay eyes on Reznik, they all fall in line.
"Well let's see what you no good dumbasses managed to screw up today!" Reznik starts to walk around the barracks, inspecting everyone's beds. There is an obvious wrinkle in one of the beds and Reznik is not having it.
"Dumbo, are you just so stupid that you couldn't even make a bed properly!"
"Sir yes sir!" The boy with unusually large ears answers. He can't be more than thirteen.
"Oh, I see. I'm sorry I must have forgotten how big your damn ears are. They must have gotten in the way," Reznik softens his voice, mockingly.
"Those things are just so damn enormous, I don't understand how you fit in the womb! I pity your mother. She probably almost died giving birth to you because of those damn ears. She went through all that pain only for the nurse to hand her the ugliest thing she's ever laid eyes on!"
Reznik must get bored with insulting this kid he called Dumbo, because he's already moved on.
"Oh, Oompa you are looking extra round today. Did you steel food from the dining hall and hide it under your bed? I mean, damn just look at yourself today." Is it too late to try to make a run for it? I think I would rather be alone out there, than be with Reznik's crazy ass.
"Flintstone, Tank! Stop staring at Enigma's ass!" I turn and look at the boys Reznik just yelled at. One of them has the bushiest unibrow I have ever seen. The other one is the boy that was speaking with a slight country accent. Well shit. I already have pervs checking me out.
"Sir yes sir!" They say in unison.
Reznik's attention is now on someone else. I follow his eyes and he's looking at a young girl. Her physical appearance makes me sick to my stomach. Her long blonde hair, her puppy dog eyes, and her small stature closely resembles Audrey. I just stare blankly at her, trying not to think about the bile rising in my throat. Did they do this on purpose? Put me in a squad with a girl that closely resembles my dead baby sister. Maybe they did this to test how strong I am. Whatever kind of plan they have going on, it's bullshit.
On the other hand, it could just be coincidental.
"Flintstone, what did I just effing say!?"
"Sir, to stop staring at private Enigma's ass sir!"
"And what were you just doing, shit face?"
"Staring at Enigma's ass sir." I turn around and give this Flintstone the meanest look I can muster. Reznik then throws insults at every other member of this squad.
After ten more minutes of me standing there awkwardly while holding my stack of things, Reznik finally leaves. They all just stare at me, waiting for me to say something.
"Um, which one of you is Zombie?" I've met so many new people since I arrived, I can't even remember who is who in this squad, even though Reznik just spent twenty minutes insulting them.
"That would be me." A tall brown-haired boy steps forward. He probably almost has a foot on me. "I'm the leader of this squad. If you need anything, or have any problems," his eyes shift toward Flintstone and Tank, briefly, "then come talk to me. I'll tell you everything you need to know." Out of the corner of my eye, I see Flintstone roll his eyes. I wonder what his deal is.
It's funny that I can remember those two perverts' names, but no one else's.
Zombie points to one of the beds, "That will be your bunk. Make sure you're ready at 0510 ever morning. That means showered, dressed, hair up, and bed made. Reznik likes to get here early sometimes. And if we aren't all ready, it makes us go down in the ranks. Only the top four squads get to graduate and go into actual combat zones. Stuff like being the first squad to finish a drill, or getting better at shooting, gives us points which makes us go up in the ranks. But stuff like fighting with each other, and talking after lights out makes us go down in the ranks."
"Oh, you and your little dog are really good at that last thing," Flintstone interrupts.
"Stow, it, Flint," Zombie commands. "The whole schedule is a lot to get used to, but we'll all help you out."
"Yeah, we will," Flintstone says while looking me up and down. Zombie just sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Anyways, you already know those two. That's Dumbo, Teacup, Oompa, Poundcake, and Nugget." Each of them give me a small wave or something.
"Private Enigma, welcome to squad 53."

Hope you all enjoyed!! I ate like a whole bag of cheetos while writing this and I have my first cross country meet in like a week hahaha rip.